


Enemies Closer

by Caelum_Blue



Series: Azula Week 2020 [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Controlling Parent(s), Fire Nation Politics (Avatar), Fire Nation Royal Family, Friendship, Gen, Hanging Out, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Ozai's A+ Parenting, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25146424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caelum_Blue/pseuds/Caelum_Blue
Summary: Written for Azula Week 2020. Prompt - Friendship.When you grow up in the Fire Palace, your friendships tend to come with ulterior motives. Sometimes they aren’t evenyourulterior motives.
Relationships: Azula & Mai & Ty Lee
Series: Azula Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1818433
Comments: 14
Kudos: 84





	Enemies Closer

**Author's Note:**

> Something more serious today. I had fun with this one, because it allowed me to pull in some of my OCs/headcanons.
> 
> Regarding the tags - while there is no explicit or physical abuse going on here, my take on Ozai's abuse of Azula is more of the subtle, manipulative, controlling type, so you might get those vibes here.
> 
> Enjoy!

Azula rarely visited her friends these days.

That wasn’t to say she rarely saw them - quite the opposite, in fact. Since Father had become Fire Lord, Mai and Ty Lee had practically become fixtures in the Fire Palace. Azula had needed the support of her friends after her mother’s mysterious disappearance and her father’s sudden rise to the throne, after all. And after the political upheaval had calmed down, well, Azula was of an age where it was important to start cultivating friendships that might benefit her later in life. So Mai and Ty Lee continued to be invited to the palace. Often.

Her friends had to come to  _ her. _ It wasn’t often that Azula left the palace to visit  _ them. _

Mai didn’t care, because Mai didn’t seem to care about anything. She also claimed that the palace was less boring than her family’s home, so  _ obviously _ she preferred spending her time there.

Ty Lee didn’t truly mind either, but she did seem more put out. “It’s a shame you can’t come visit my island. The coffee cherries are really good this year! But the juice doesn’t travel well.”

“Ty Lee, we’ve been over this,” Azula said. “I simply haven’t the time.” It wasn’t even a lie. Between her firebending training and her education at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, Azula didn’t have much time to relax. More than Zuko, who had to work three times as hard just to stay almost-average - but still. Father expected absolute perfection, and Azula knew that  _ almost _ would never be good enough. Zuko was proof of that.

Privately, however, she thought it was unfair. Lu Ten had had firebending training and army training and an education befitting the son of the Crown Prince, and  _ he’d _ visited Kohimori Island often to see  _ his _ friends. But shortly after Father’s coronation, Azula had learned not to request any visits to Kohimori herself. The last time she had, Father’s lips had thinned, his eyes had darkened, and he’d told her that as a princess she would do better to remain in the palace, where she belonged. Her friends, he’d said, ought to be honored to come visit  _ her. _

Ty Lee may very well be Azula’s friend  _ now, _ but Ty Lee’s oldest sister and cousin had been Lu Ten’s friends  _ first. _ The Kohimori Clan had been staunch supporters of Prince Iroh before Fire Lord Ozai’s sudden ascension to the throne. And as for Mai...well. Uncle’s wife had been from the House of Flying Daggers. Mai was a distant cousin to the late Princess Janya and Prince Lu Ten.

Azula hadn’t asked again if she could visit Ty Lee’s home island. She never even brought up Mai’s.

She went to Mai and Ty Lee’s houses in Caldera City occasionally, but more often than not they stayed behind the palace walls. 

Today they were lazing in one of the gardens, the one directly below the Fire Lord’s office, and they were allegedly studying. Maybe Mai and Ty Lee were  _ actually _ studying. Azula had never seen the point. She had a perfect memory, so she didn’t  _ need _ to study, it was just a waste of time. So long as she did her required reading and listened to her instructors’ lectures, she would be able to recall her lessons with crystal clarity, and if other students needed to reread and pore over the same bits of information for hours, well, that certainly wasn’t  _ her _ problem.

Her teachers at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls had been somewhat perturbed by this attitude, but they couldn’t argue with her academic performance. She had the highest marks in the entire school, let alone her own class. Upon seeing the results of her first year in classes, her teachers had all applauded her and her perfect grades - of course the Fire Princess would be so intelligent, of course she wouldn’t have to study, of course she was a brilliant young woman. More importantly,  _ Father _ was pleased with Azula’s performance. The only professor who’d ever brought her concerns up to the Fire Lord and implied that Azula’s lack of study habits may be cause for concern had been shipped off to the colonies.

Azula had laughed when she’d heard that. It just proved her point. Her academic success came to her easily, and she saw no reason to study information she already knew when she could be working on her firebending instead.

Right now she was working on her firebending by manipulating the temperature of the little flame under the teapot.

“Azula!” Ty Lee complained. “You’re going to ruin the tea!”

Azula made the flame spit a few more times before she gave it up and swiped a cookie from the table the servants had laid out. “It’s a stupid drink, anyway. I’m surprised you even drink it. Doesn’t your clan supposedly grow the best coffee in the Fire Nation?”

“I  _ would _ be drinking coffee cherry juice, if we had any,” Ty Lee said dejectedly. Then she perked up. “But Min says I’ll be old enough for coffee in a few years! I can’t wait!”

“I thought you said it tastes disgusting,” said Mai, glaring at her textbook like she wanted to stab it.

“It  _ does, _ but Min says I’ll like it more when I’m older. And I can always add sugar to it!”

Azula and Mai exchanged glances at the thought of Ty Lee hyped up on caffeine  _ and _ sugar.

“I don’t think I’d like it with sugar,” Mai said.

Azula snorted. “Clearly, you’re going to be one of those people who takes their coffee as black as their soul.”

“Mai’s soul isn’t black,” Ty Lee said, tilting her head. “It’s just a little gray and gloomy.”

“Mm-hm,” Azula said. “Is the tea ready?”

It was ready enough. Ty Lee poured it into cups. Azula sipped it and made a face. Tea never lived up to her expectations. Not that she knew  _ what _ she expected from it, exactly. There’d been a time when she’d  _ liked _ tea, she was sure, but that had been years ago.

Whatever. It was a stupid drink anyway. It had to be, if Uncle liked it so much.

Lu Ten had liked tea, too.

Azula suspected the last time she’d truly enjoyed tea had been when she was six. She also suspected if she asked Uncle to brew a pot, she’d enjoy it. She refused to entertain either notion for more than the split second it took to dismiss them. 

Ty Lee sipped her tea. “I think it’s okay?” She had another sip. “It’s really not as good as Prin - General Iroh’s.”

Azula shot a look upwards, towards Father’s office window. It was empty. “Well of course it isn’t,” she huffed. “If His Royal Tea-Loving Kookiness put as much work into conquering as he does into his tea making, we wouldn’t have lost at Ba Sing Se.”

She meant the words to be mocking, but even as she said them, she could tell there was a heated edge to her voice. Ty Lee and Mai both blinked at her. Then Ty Lee nodded, and Mai shrugged.

Azula sipped her tea. It still tasted like disappointment.

“Oh, great,” Mai sighed suddenly, “my mother’s here.”

Azula looked to the far side of the garden, where Lady Michi was being escorted in by a servant. The woman practically floated over the grass. She always seemed perfectly at ease in the palace, Azula had noticed. Always happy to come take her daughter home instead of sending a servant to do it, always willing to pause and chat with whatever nobles or ministers were milling about the halls, always giving polite smiles and demure laughter and earnest small talk.

“Princess Azula,” Lady Michi said, bowing gracefully. “How are your studies going, girls?”

“Boring,” Mai proclaimed.

“We’re good,” Ty Lee smiled.

“I already know all this,” Azula said, gesturing at her history book. She’d read it earlier; there was no point in reading it again.

Lady Michi smiled. “Of course our princess would be an exemplary student,” she said, bowing again. “Mai, dinner will be ready in an hour. Be ready to go by then.”

“Yes, Mother,” Mai sighed.

Lady Michi nodded and glanced around the garden. “Oh,” she said, “there’s Lady Hiromi!”

Ty Lee and Azula followed her gaze and found Ty Lee’s mother standing under the covered walkway that bordered the garden. Ty Lee’s oldest sister was with her.

“I’ll just go say hello,” Lady Michi said, swanning across the lawn.

Mai sighed again. “Guess I’ll be going home soon,” she said.

“Oh please, your mother is going to take a whole hour to mingle before she leaves,” Azula scoffed. She watched Lady Michi greet Ty Lee’s mother and sister, and the women started chatting quietly. Lady Michi’s voice was light and airy, but the other two kept theirs lower, demure. While Mai’s mother was perfectly happy to be in the palace, Lady Hiromi and Lady Min Lee always seemed ill at ease - they didn’t make a point to stop and speak to everyone they met, and they never stayed longer than necessary.

There’d been a time when Lady Min Lee had spent entire days in the palace. Azula could remember her running around with Lu Ten, or studying with him in this very garden just as Azula now did with Mai and Ty Lee.

As though sensing her thoughts, Lady Min Lee glanced away from Lady Michi to look at the girls in the garden. Azula stared back at her. Mai didn’t bother looking up. Ty Lee raised a hand and waved at her sister.

Lady Min Lee smiled, removed one of her hands from her perfectly-enfolded sleeves, and gave a little wave back.

Ty Lee beamed.

But then Lady Min Lee’s smile went stiff, and a moment later Azula saw why - Uncle came strolling down the walkway, Zuko trailing after him. Uncle was smiling indulgently at whatever Zuko was prattling about - probably something stupid and useless. They were headed in the direction that would take them towards the training grounds though, so maybe Uncle was actually going to do something useful for once and Zuko might actually learn something. Uncle’s face turned from Zuko to look ahead, and neither his step nor his expression faltered when he saw the noblewomen conversing on the walkway.

Lady Min Lee and Lady Hiromi both turned directly to Lady Michi - who, despite her love of chatting up every politician in the palace, didn’t even glance in Uncle’s direction. All three women became absolutely engrossed in their conversation - something about someone’s prized hibiscus bushes somewhere - and as Uncle and Zuko walked past them, they didn’t even give Uncle a glance. Uncle gave no indication he’d even seen them, aside from the fact that he didn’t walk right into them. He passed them by without so much as a hello, and they let him leave without even making eye contact.

Zuko didn’t seem to notice the women either, but that was probably because Zuko was an oblivious idiot.

Azula felt a prickle on her neck, and she casually glanced back up towards the Fire Lord’s office - only with her eyes, not her whole head. Father stood there, framed in the window, and he was watching Uncle and Zuko walk away, his eyes tracking them until they rounded the corner and were out of sight. Then he looked to Lady Michi and Lady Hiromi and Lady Min Lee. If the women were aware of his attention, they didn’t show it - they just kept chattering as Uncle and Zuko’s footsteps faded away. Father’s gaze moved to Mai and Ty Lee next, considering.

Azula turned her attention back to her friends before her father’s eyes fell on her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are always greatly appreciated. ^_^
> 
> For anyone who's read my other works concerning Ty Lee's family, I hope you appreciated this post-Azulon look at their current political situation, ahaha. 
> 
> Mai's family isn't in as much trouble for a few reasons - Ozai actually liked his sister-in-law, she's been dead for decades, she was from a cadet branch of her family instead of the lead, and that lead branch was pretty quick to accept Ozai as their new overlord. (Sidenote: When Zuko becomes Fire Lord, my Ukano and Michi are pretty quick to accept him as their new overlord too. Those two are happy to float wherever the wind takes them, and if it takes them to their daughter becoming Fire Lady, WELL, they certainly aren't looking THAT gift ostrich-horse in the mouth. I've always thought that Zuko's in-laws would be a major stabilizing force early on in his reign. The comics haven't changed my mind on this.)
> 
> Regarding Azula and her study habits - I pretty much read Azula's arc as that of a "gifted child." It's the same old story - kid who happens to have a good memory and acute book smarts (and possibly undiagnosed ADHD/Autism/Something) gets hailed as a little genius, gets easy A's without trying, the adults in their life figure the end justifies the means and are just proud to have a smart kid, said kid never builds up study skills or gains an understanding of how effort works, hits a point in their life where "being smart" isn't what they need to accomplish their goals, cannot comprehend this new reality they find themselves in and proceed to fall apart and assume they peaked as a teenager while all the adults in their life say things like "you had so much potential." 
> 
> Zuko claims that "everything comes easy" to Azula, and while I believe he's a slightly unreliable narrator there due to childhood jealousy, I do think he isn't exaggerating much. Azula probably did put a lot of effort into certain things - her Firebending, for one thing, we see her training lightningbending and working hard to get it right - but it really does come naturally and she learns quick so it doesn't take as much effort as it does for Zuko. In other things, such as her schoolwork, I've decided Azula barely puts any effort in at all and still comes out on top. And life works out great for her......until it doesn't.


End file.
